


Driver's Ed. For Angels

by opacre



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Driving, Fluff, Impala, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 14:39:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5630041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opacre/pseuds/opacre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Castiel frowned curiously at the thing in front of him.  “I don’t understand.”</p><p>Dean raised an eyebrow as he tossed the keys from one hand to another.  “We haven’t even started yet, Cas.  What’s there to understand?”  His brows furrowed slightly.  “You do understand that me teaching you to drive involves a car, right?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Driver's Ed. For Angels

**Author's Note:**

> This was written in some odd time when the Winchester boys were pretty okay and Bobby was alive and Cas wasn't having angel problems. So, you know, some alternate universe. Also, I've never driven manual so a lot of that was taken from the internet and friends, please feel free to ignore or offer solutions. Enjoy!

**~~**

**BASICS**

Castiel frowned curiously at the thing in front of him.  “I don’t understand.”

Dean raised an eyebrow as he tossed the keys from one hand to another.  “We haven’t even started yet, Cas.  What’s there to understand?”  His brows furrowed slightly.  “You do understand that me teaching you to drive involves a car, right?”

The angel gave him an unamused look.  “Yes, I’m aware of that.  I meant…” He gestured to the vehicle.  “Why are we using this instead of the Impala?”

“There is no way I am teaching you in my baby,” Dean growled, giving Castiel a dark look.  He shuddered and walked to the driver’s side.  “I’m a great teacher but I am not chancing you suddenly up and flapping away right as we pass the one tree on the road and leaving her to ram it.”

“I wouldn’t - ”  Castiel sighed and gave up, following after the hunter.  “I did remind you before that this really wasn’t necessary, didn’t I?” 

“Everyone should know how to drive, Cas,” Dean said, tossing the keys to the angel.  Castiel fumbled with them and gave him a look.  “Especially angels who are prone to go human-side every once in a while, you never know when it’ll come in useful.”

“Then wouldn’t it make more sense to learn in the automobile I would most likely be handling?” Castiel pointed out once again.  It wasn’t that he was particularly eager to begin but if Dean was going to be so insistent, he’d rather have the familiarity of the black car.

“You are not learning in the Impala,” Dean said in a very final tone of voice.  Castiel sighed and gave up, looking down at the keys in his hand.  “Now, first lesson: open the door and sit.”

At this, Castiel gave him a very flat look.  “I think I already know how to do that, Dean.”

Dean gave him a grin.  “Yeah, as a passenger maybe.  Now you’re going to be a driver, totally different. So…” He moved aside and waved his hand at the door.  “Go for it.”

Castiel gave him one last look and moved to the door. He tried to open it and found it locked.

“And you were saying we should skip this step,” Dean muttered.  Castiel glared at him and fumbled with the keys in his hand.  At the first attempt, the key wouldn’t go in and his brow furrowed.  He tried to push a little harder but it wouldn’t fit in.

“It’s backwards,” Dean coughed.

The angel stopped.  He slowly removed the key, turned it around and reinserted it.  He said nothing when it slid in smoothly and turned.  Dean said nothing as he opened the door successfully and sat on the seat.

Dean hadn’t been exaggerating – too much – when he said it was a different experience as a driver rather as a passenger, Castiel reflected as he sat in the driver’s seat.  He had often sat in the front beside Dean on drives – “shotgun” was the technical term Dean had given him – so he was already familiar with the basic concept of the mirrors, radio and windshield.  But as a driver, he now had the wheel in front of him and as he awkwardly settled his feet, he felt a sliver of apprehension at the feel of metal steps so close next to them.

He jerked a little when Dean knelt down beside the driver’s side, carefully balanced on his haunches with one hand on the wheel and another on Castiel’s arm.  He felt a small squeeze and felt some of his nervousness leave.

“Congratulations, you’ve passed lesson one,” Dean grinned at him, the sun reflecting through the window of the door and lighting his face and hair.  Castiel carefully considered just sitting here and acknowledging that this was as far as he was willing to go the rest of the day.

“Lesson two,” Dean announced before the angel could inform the hunter of his decision.  “Learning what’s what.”  He patted the wheel.  “This is the steering wheel.  It’s what you use to make the car move in certain directions.”

“I had gathered,” Castiel said dryly.

“Respect the wheel, Cas,” Dean said sternly, fingers drumming on the edges.  “It’s a very sensitive part, you treat it harshly or roughly, she’s gonna take you for a very unpleasant spin.  But if you’re gentle and smooth, there won’t be any problems with her.”

“Her?” Castiel repeated bemusedly.

“Later very important lesson.  Now, see that gear stick next to you?”

Castiel gave him a blank look.

Dean sighed and lifted himself up just enough to lean into the driver’s seat to stretch his arm to point to the other side of Castiel.  “You see this stick here, with the knob and the numbers?  It’s called a gear stick.  Also, gear shifter, gear lever, stick, etc., etc., okay?”

Castiel concentrated very hard on not paying attention to the warm human practically draped across his lap, his eyes flicking sideways and focusing at where Dean was pointing.  “Okay.”

“Now, you move it to change gears, we’ll get into that later, I just want you to know what it is so when I say ‘Cas, shift the damn gear stick!’ you’ll know what I mean.”

“Shift?”

“Later lesson.  Gear stick?”

“Gear stick,” Castiel repeated obediently and lightly touched it, his fingers grazing Dean’s briefly.

Dean cleared his throat and moved his hand to the next part.  “And this here is the emergency brake.  Now, you won’t be using this one much until you’re in the advanced course but you should know because I’ll no doubt be tugging on it quite a bit.  It’ll stop the car immediately, which I might need to do.”  Dean moved back and murmured, “To avoid trees.”

As he resettled himself on his haunches, Castiel gave him an exasperated look.

“Okay, next, the pedals.”  He paused and then awkwardly rubbed the back of the neck.  “Uh, it’s going to be a little hard since I can’t really point them out for you.  But you can feel them, yeah?”

Castiel could indeed feel the metal next to his feet and looked down at the floor mat.

“Here, let me,” Dean said distractedly and Castiel stilled as one of Dean’s hands reached down under.  He felt the arm brush across his leg and he carefully pressed them together, trying to give the other man as much room as possible.  He heard something click and the next thing he knew, he was gripping the seat tightly as it suddenly jerked backwards.

“There we go,” Dean said in satisfaction, moving his hand back to the wheel.  He glanced back at Castiel and let out a laugh at the wide eyed look on the angel’s face, which quickly morphed into a faintly annoyed look.

“Warn me next time you decide to do that,” Castiel said darkly, resettling himself and stretching his legs in the now available space.

“You’re going to have to learn to do that yourself,” Dean grinned at him.  “Not every car’s going to be the same and you’re going to have to adjust yourself to make it comfortable.”  He paused and Castiel gave him a curious look at the slight flush.

“Anyway, moving on,” Dean continued, dropping his eyes down to the floor.  “Now, I want you to touch the further right pedal.  Don’t press, just touch.  Okay, that’s the gas.  It’s what makes the car go fast.”

Castiel very, very carefully moved his foot away from that pedal.

“Okay, now go to the one to the left of it.  That’s the brake. It’s what makes the car stop or slow down.”

Castiel touched the pedal.  It didn’t feel very different from the other one, which wasn’t very comforting.  He would have preferred some form of differentiation.

“Okay, now all cars will have those two pedals, in the exact spot next to each other.  Left equals brake, right equals gas,” Dean explained to him.

“Left equals brake, right equals gas,” Castiel dutifully recited and tried to sear the words into his memory.  He had the names of all the prophets, could recite scripture in his sleep, was fluent in all dialects and languages.  How difficult could it be?

“Unless it’s a manual transmission,” Dean added.  Castiel stopped memorizing and stared at him.  “In which case, let me introduce you to the far left pedal, the clutch.”

 Castiel slowly moved his foot carefully and indeed there was another pedal, feeling almost exactly the same as the other two.

“The clutch is going to help you shift gears,” Dean said.  “You have to press it as you switch gears otherwise you’ll stall.  Don’t worry, it’ll make sense later,” he reassured the overwhelmed angel.

“Why do only some cars have them?” Castiel asked steadily, refusing to give in to his alarm when he hadn’t even turned on the car.

Dean shrugged.  “Automatics do it without the clutch, all they have is the brake and gas.”

Castiel frowned down at his feet.  “The clutch seems most inconvenient.  Perhaps it would be better if all cars were modeled or refitted in the automatic fashion then.”

“Blasphemer,” Dean muttered. Castiel shot him a look and the hunter winced.  “Er, sorry.  There are advantages to the clutch and if you can drive clutch, you’re good for anything.”  He cleared his throat and critically looked around at the driver’s area.  “And I think that’s it.”

The angel started and stared at the area as well.  There were a variety of things he still did not understand the function of and he was still confused by the things that Dean had explained.  “But - ”

“The best way to learn is by experience,” Dean grinned, straightening up.  Castiel stared up at him, wide eyed.  He couldn’t possibly mean…

Dean shut the driver’s door and jauntily walked across the front of the car to the passenger’s side.  Castiel silently watched as he slid in and put his seat belt on, something he rarely saw the hunter actually do.

“Alright then,” Dean grinned, cracking his knuckles.  Castiel felt another shiver of nervousness at the gleam in the hunter’s eyes.  “Let’s get started.”

**~~**

**BEGINNER**

“Let’s start at the very beginning.”

“Funny,” Castiel said, smiling slightly.

Dean gave him a confused look.  “What?”

The smile faded.  “Ah…were you not…making a joke…?” Castiel averted his eyes and firmly looked at the wheel in front of him.

Beside him, he heard Dean let out a surprised chuckle.  “Oh, I get it, nice.  No, not what I meant, but I’m glad you’re finally getting a sense of humor there.  We’ll make a human out of you yet.”

Castiel tilted his head and Dean shook his head again, smiling.

“What I meant was, let’s turn on the car.”

“Ah.”

“The car’s parked, it’s not going anywhere so there’s no way you could fail this,” Dean encouraged, leaning back in his seat. 

Castiel turned the key and the car’s ignition screeched and stuttered.

“Stop turning!” Dean yelped.

“But you said - ”

“We need the clutch!”

~~

“The easy part is where to put your hands.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“The wheel, Cas.”

“What about it?”

“Your hands, you need to – look just put them on ten and four.”

“…I don’t understand.”

“The numbers?  Like on a clock?”  There was a pause and then a small sigh.  “Not those numbers Cas, where do you even see a ten there.  Did I even say to go for the gear stick?”

Castiel replied, a slight tinge of irritation in his voice, “Well, since those are the only numbers I see and the last time you failed to mention I would need it to start the car…”

“You – here, just let me,” Dean said, losing his patience and reaching over to move the angel’s hands himself.  Castiel reflexively resisted and Dean scowled and firmly grabbed and put them into place.

Castiel wondered whether the heat coiling in his stomach was from him liking the feel of the callused hands or wanting to hit Dean for his controlling motions.  Perhaps a bit of both.

~~

“Okay, now I want you to gently, gently mind you, push down on the gas and - ”

The car screeched forward and both angel and hunter shouted and flung their arms up.

“Not you Cas, hands on the wheel, hands on the wheel!”

~~

“Is it supposed to be making that noise?” Castiel asked, not even trying to hide the panic in his voice as his fingers clenched on the wheel.

“No,” Dean said through gritted teeth, wincing at the sound.  “For the love of…Cas, the clutch, press the – the far left, damn it!”

~~

“Why isn’t this working?” Castiel demanded, staring down at the wheel with the wrath of Heaven in his eyes.  “I’m pressing the clutch and everything.”

Dean rubbed his eyes.  “Yes, that’s good and all but you should actually be pressing down on the gas.  Like I said.”

Castiel let out a growl.  An actual growl, one that Dean had never heard before.  It made him drop his hand from his eyes to stare at the angel, his blue eyes burning down at the wheel in front of him.  There was another stuttering noise and the car shuddered and Castiel growled softly again.

Dean cleared his throat and carefully adjusted himself in his seat.  “Cas, you know - ”

Those burning blue eyes shot towards him and he shut up as they flared up at him.

~~

Sam heard the door slam and looked up from his laptop to see Dean storm into the bathroom.

He gave him a minute, then asked, “So, how did it go?”

Dean’s response was to slam the door.

He shook his head and went back to his research.

**~~**

**INTERMEDIATE**

“Congratulations, Cas, you and the clutch are now friends,” Dean announced as they carefully wobbled down a lone, wide empty road not too far from Bobby’s house.

“I really wish we had just used an automatic,” Castiel said, not moving his hands in any manner and carefully adjusting his foot.

“You’ll thank me later,” Dean snorted, also carefully watching the road, the movement of Castiel’s foot and Castiel himself.  The angel was in no way as composed as he was when Dean had been explaining everything but he wasn’t the wreck he had been during those initial trials.

“Now what?” Castiel asked, glancing at him briefly before hastily returning his gaze to the wheel and road as if something had changed in that millisecond.

Dean scratched his head.  “Well, they always say the hardest part is the beginning so it shouldn’t be so hard now.”

“Dean…”  Castiel gave him a worried look.

The hunter grinned at him.  “Let’s try a right turn.”

~~

Dean shot for the wheel as the car swerved dangerously towards the curb.  “Cas, watch out!”

Together, they moved the wheel and the car swerved the other way into the thankfully empty side of the road.  Castiel whirled the wheel around again to straighten it and Dean slapped at one of his hands.

“Stop moving it so much!” Dean shouted, his green eyes wide and terrified.

Castiel suddenly understood Dean’s worry that he’d vanish from the car.

~~

“Now let the wheel return by itself,” Dean said, breathing in and out very slowly.  “You don’t need to do anything here, it’ll do it by itself.”

Castiel watched as the wheel slid across his numb fingers, fighting the urge to clamp down and move it into the exact position he started off with.

“…you can move it a little,” Dean said hesitantly, as if he were unsure as well.

Castiel took a deep breath and lightly tapped the edge.

~~

Dean and Castiel held their breath as the car turned…and exhaled as it straightened out into a straight line.

They grinned at each other, their faces lit up with the victory of their shared success.

~~

 “Here, let’s try a left turn now,” Dean said warily.  “It’s the exact same as the right, just, you know, left.”  He smiled weakly.

Castiel grimly adjusted the speed, his face determined as he approached the turn.  He was a warrior of Heaven, an angel of the Lord, he had faced down countless demons, the devil himself.  He had mastered the clutch.

He slowly turned, his brows furrowed and grip tight.  As the car moved and turned, he carefully adjusted the wheel back into its proper position.

It took him a minute of straight driving to realize he had done the turn by himself.

His eyes widened and he looked over at Dean, who was still grinning widely at him.

The angel flushed and turned his attention back to the road, wobbling the car a bit.

Dean said nothing at all and they continued to move along, slowly but getting steadier.

~~

“Cas, shift the damn gear stick!”

Castiel remembered Dean telling him he’d be saying that.  He smiled faintly at the memory.

“CAS! SHIFT!”

Castiel hastily shifted, then winced at the grating noise.

~~

“I think you’re good to start learning some rules of the road,” Dean said thoughtfully as they ambled down the road.

“I hardly think now is a good time to learn,” Castiel began, his focus on driving straight.

“Rule 1: Red means stop, green means go,” Dean said, ignoring his protests as he glanced at the dashboard.

The words triggered a memory in the angel’s mind.  “Left equals brake, right equals gas.”

Dean smiled faintly.  “Yeah, same basic principle.  Also, there are these signs with numbers.  Now, some people will tell you not to go over them.  Me, taking into account our lifestyle, will tell you to take them as guidelines.”

Castiel looked doubtfully at the hunter.

~~

“Now, see that red sign with the word - ”

“Dean, I know what a Stop sign is.”

~~ 

“I heard yelling,” Bobby commented as he wiped a glass in his kitchen while Dean rummaged in his bare refrigerator.  Why the boy insisted on looking through it when he damn well knew there was nothing edible, he had no clue.

“Huh?” Dean said absently, frowning as he moved aside something.

“It sounded like Castiel,” the older hunter said, putting down the glass and opening a cupboard.  “Hope you’re not taking it too hard on him.”  He shook his head at himself as he listened to his own words.  Him, defending an angel who could probably reduce Dean to tears with a flick of his hand.

“Oh, that,” Dean snorted, closing the fridge.  “He was yelling at the clutch for sticking.”  He grinned as he brought his bottle of beer to his lips.  “He’s really starting to get a hang of it now.”

He coughed as a packet of instant noodles hit him in the chest.

**~~**

**ADVANCED**

“I don’t want to do this,” Castiel said, staring down at the wheel with a very pale face.  He didn’t move at all when Dean gently touched him on his shoulder.

“You can do this, Cas,” Dean said quietly, his hand firm and solid.  “I’ve been here man, every step, and I wouldn’t let you even think about it if I didn’t think you could handle it.  You can do it.”

Castiel took a deep breath and closed his eyes, reaching out for all the strength he had buried inside of him in his vessel.  The grace, the peace, the serenity…he licked his lips and opened his eyes, looking at Dean.  “You’re sure?”

Dean’s eyes didn’t waver from his.  “I believe in you, Cas.”

The angel’s hands tightened around the wheel and his face firmed up.  He straightened and with his resolve, turned on the car.

They said nothing as they headed into town for the light traffic.

~~

Castiel wasn’t the frantic beginner or nervous driver, Dean saw.  He still wasn’t as suave and confident as time would make him but as they crossed through the town’s intersections, Dean saw how he carefully followed along in the trail of cars, appropriately following the lights and signs.

He took in the pleased and wondered expression on the angel’s face as a driver in front of them gave them the thankful hand when Castiel let him change lanes.

And he laughed when Castiel narrowed his eyes as another cut ahead of them, forcing them to an abrupt stop.  The words that followed sounded Enochian and he wondered if the angel would teach them to him later.

~~

“Now, turn the wheel clockwise and back up,” Dean breathed, his head craned behind him as Castiel carefully reversed into the empty parking space.  “Okay, now you’re going to turn it counterclockwise, now.”

The angel smoothly rolled the wheel, fully concentrating as his eyes shifted to the rearview mirror, the side mirrors, looking over his shoulder, checking on his wheel.

The car shakily slid into place.

“Okay,” Dean whispered.  “Okay, now, move forward and keep turning.”

Castiel expelled a breath and slowly edged forward, wincing with each inch.  Finally, he stopped and looked expectantly at the hunter.

Dean opened his door and looked out.  When he turned back, there was a shaky smile on his lips.  “Well, you’re doing better than Sam, at least.”

~~

Castiel slowly rolled up to the stop sign, wincing as the car creaked closer.  He glanced to his side but Dean just continued to drum his fingers on the passenger’s window, seemingly casual as he looked at the pedestrians on the crosswalk.

Neither of them mentioned his hand on the emergency brake and when the last person crossed and Castiel slowly moved forward, neither of them said anything when Dean slowly moved his hand off of it.

~~

Bobby and Sam looked up from their current research, startled, when the front door to Bobby’s house banged open.  Not even a minute later, Dean tumbled into the living room they were sitting in, a wide grin on his face with an arm slung over Castiel’s shoulders, who was smiling too, a light flush on his face.

“Break out the big stuff, Bobby!” Dean declared, his entire face lit up like it hadn’t been in so long.  “Angel here has finally mastered the highway!”

**~~**

**EXPERT**

Thinking back on it, Castiel treasured learning to drive.

Not just because of the knowledge gained.  He still absolutely saw no purpose to driving as he could simply move from place to place with a mere thought.  Sometimes the places he wished to go could not be achieved by any form of vehicle.  More often than not, he still rode in the passenger seat (and he could not help but nitpick all the little errors Dean committed, which made the man scoff at him and blush).

And yes, those few times when he slid in behind the wheel, they were indeed exhilarating.  Driving alongside the humans he cherished, he felt a sense of belonging so strong it rivaled the feeling he once had when he stood alongside his brothers and sisters, knowing his place as humanity’s guardian.  He was one of them, driving carefully and being honked at, or impatient to cross and thinking idly wicked thoughts to those who he irrationally believed wronged him.

But all of it was nothing compared to the lessons.

Having Dean at his side, guiding him and pushing him and encouraging him and scolding him and just there, at his side…

The first time Dean gave him the keys to the Impala, sliding them into his hand with his own fingers, he remembered all those lessons and how they had led them there, sliding into the familiar black car with the hunter at his side.

He drove out from Bobby’s lot, the windows whirled down and Dean’s music flowing in the air, one hand on the wheel while his other rested on the gear shift easily.  The twilight sun lowered as they drove, little flecks of stars appearing in the windshield.

Castiel drove them out, all the way out to an empty field and Dean let out a low laugh when he carefully parked them right next to the lone tree.

He turned the engine off and expectantly turned to the hunter, who was grinning at him, the same bright grin he had on when he first said that he’d teach the angel to drive.

Dean leaned across, one arm braced behind the driver’s headrest and the other hand curling around the angel’s neck, and murmured, “Last lesson.”


End file.
